Smart Grid News

IEEE releases new specifications for smart grid deployment

SUBNET Solutions Inc | Monday, May 14, 2012

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently announced the release of its new 802.15.4g radio standard, which was developed to address common and consistent communication specs for wireless networking found in smart grid deployments, Fierce Smart Grid reports.

According to the media outlet, the new standard will help utilities increase communications interoperability among intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) that have been installed on the smart grid, such as smart meters and other installations.

The standard was strongly supported and influenced by Elster, Itron, Landis+Gyr, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology of Japan and Silver Spring Networks. These groups helped steer the standard toward interoperability between new and existing devices, which are being increasingly used for long-term operations.

With the addition of the new standard, utilities will more easily be able to integrate wireless communications into their electric framework.

The growing use of different IEDs is being supplemented by SUBNET's solutions and products, which help utilities organize and manage the huge amounts of data that are derived from the devices. As more operations take place remotely, SUBNET also ensures utilities comply with strict NERC CIP standards that were written to keep key infrastructure safe from cyber attack.